Platform: X · Account: @gabriel_horwitz · 2.1K followers Posted: April 30, 2026 · Stats: 9.0M views · 62K likes · Virality Score #1
Post
Turns out the story of the year was just...made up. and it gets worse.
John Doe is Chirayu Rana, 35, now a principal at Bregal Sagemount. he left JPMorgan and went straight to private equity.
The whole "threaten his bonus" premise collapsed. Hajdini reported to a completely different person...
Hook
"Turns out the story of the year was just...made up. and it gets worse."
Why?
"Turns out" is one of the most reliable scroll-stoppers in existence because it positions the writer as someone who went and checked — and found something everyone else missed. The reader doesn't need to be caught up; the phrase "the story of the year" tells them this is about something they already know and already have an opinion on. Then the ellipsis before "made up" does something a period can't: it creates a beat, a dramatic pause, the kind you get right before a verdict. And "and it gets worse" makes stopping physically uncomfortable. You can't close the app after reading that.
When?
Use this hook when you're correcting something widely believed — a viral story, a piece of conventional wisdom, a statistic everyone quotes. The critical requirement is that your audience already knows the original claim. If they've never heard of "the story of the year," the hook loses its power entirely. The more famous the thing you're debunking, the harder it hits.
How?
The manual formula: Two sentences. The first opens with "Turns out" and names the familiar belief, then delivers the reveal with a pause (the ellipsis earns its place here). The second is always "and it gets worse." — four words, no variation needed. Everything after that is proof. The hook isn't the thread; it's the reason anyone reads the thread.
Full template: "Turns out [the thing everyone believed] was just...[the reveal]. and it gets worse."
A few angles this works for:
Industry myths ("Turns out the study everyone cites to justify [common practice] was retracted in 2019. and it gets worse.")
Career ("Turns out the resume advice that's been circulating for 10 years actively hurts your chances at top companies. and it gets worse.")
Creator economy ("Turns out the most shared thread about going viral was written by someone who bought all their followers. and it gets worse.")
With AI: Prompt: "I want to open a thread with a 'Turns out' hook. My subject is [topic/debunked claim]. Write me a first sentence that opens with 'Turns out [widely believed thing] was just...[the reveal].' Follow it with 'and it gets worse.' The reader should already know the original claim — don't explain it, just name it. Give me 5 versions."
Then cut anything that over-explains before the ellipsis. The pause only works if what comes after it feels inevitable.
See you next week,
Hook and Follow